The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases at the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, charged members of the retired Carabineros civil commission, Alex Mauricio Valle Philips and Moisés Sebastián Reyes Rivas, as perpetrators of the crimes of illegal coercion against Javier Enrique Esparza Osorio and as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of Tomás Segundo Esparza Osorio, illicit acts perpetrated at the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco in November 1984.

In the same case, the investigating minister charged Rubén Eloy Muñoz Rivas as an accomplice to the crime of illegal coercion (torture) against the person of Tomás Segundo Esparza Osorio, perpetrated at the Las Quilas Carabineros station in November 1984.

During the investigation stage (Case No. 113.996), Minister Mesa established the following facts: A.- That inside the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, during 1984, there was a small office located in an area near the interior courtyard, where a group of uniformed officers who made up the civil commission of said police unit performed their duties, composed of Lieutenant Alex Mauricio Valle Philips and corporals Moisés Reyes Rivas and Hernán Navarrete Reyes, who were dedicated to performing tasks different from the rest of the personnel of the Segunda Comisaría, especially crimes of social connotation. In the office designated for their work, they proceeded to interrogate detainees, who on some occasions were not entered into the guard and cell logs, but rather, prior to that official procedure, were taken directly to said office. Furthermore, for their work as members of the civil commission of the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, they frequently used a gray vehicle owned by Valle Philips. B.- That in the month of November 1984, Sergeant Rubén Eloy Muñoz Rivas, head of the Las Quilas station, notified the members of the civil commission of the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco regarding information about an illicit act being investigated, with said group and Muñoz Rivas himself going to the home of Tomás Segundo Esparza Osorio, proceeding to arrest him along with 17-year-old Juan Enrique Fuentes Santibáñez. Both young men were taken to the Las Quilas station by the arresting group, being entered directly into the cells by them, without recording their entry in the respective guard log. In that place—and with all members of the group that carried out the arrest, including Muñoz Rivas, present at the police facility—the civil commission proceeded to tie Esparza Osorio's hands, sit him on the floor, and then applied electric current to different parts of his body until they obtained a confession for the alleged illicit act committed the previous night. The foregoing was observed by Juan Enrique Fuentes Santibáñez, who at that moment was in an adjacent cell and could see what was happening through the door's peephole. C.- That after obtaining the confession of his participation in the alleged illicit act committed the previous night, Tomás Esparza Osorio was taken out of the police unit to be transported by the civil commission to the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, while the 17-year-old youth was released without any charges against him. On the way to the police unit, in an area near the city's municipal stadium, the uniformed officers also proceeded to apprehend Esparza Osorio's brother, named Javier, on the public road, placing him in the trunk of the vehicle and finally transporting them to the aforementioned station. D.- That at the police unit, both were placed in a cell and, immediately thereafter, one of the members of the group proceeded to blindfold Javier Esparza Osorio, take him out of that place, and transport him to another office located in the same station. There, and in the presence of the other Carabineros of the civil group, he was subjected to torture consisting of the application of electric current to different parts of his body. Subsequently, he was taken back to the cell where he had originally been placed, and after this, he witnessed the moment when his brother Tomás was subjected to the same procedure, that is, being blindfolded and taken out of the cell. E.- That after a few minutes, Tomás Esparza Osorio was taken to a cell adjacent to the one where he had originally been placed, complaining loudly of pain resulting from the coercion received. After a few minutes, his brother Javier looked through the peephole of the cell door and was able to see how the uniformed officers were moving quickly, even seeing a person in a white coat arrive at that sector, and also hearing that a detainee had died. Minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre was appointed as an instructor for human rights cases on September 27, 2011. Upon assuming the position, he received 41 cases in the summary stage. He currently oversees 107 cases, and in 26 of them, he has issued indictments, which has meant issuing a total of 79 indictments. Furthermore, there are 89 cases in the summary stage, 11 in the plenary stage, and 10 have been adjudicated. Of the latter, all sentences have been convictions, with 5 of them being final. On the other hand, 6 have been temporarily dismissed, 2 have been definitively dismissed, and he has declared himself incompetent in 2. To date, there are 117 people under prosecution and 44 charged. In his investigative work, the investigating minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals is assisted by 5 judicial clerks and 8 detectives from the Human Rights Crimes Investigation Brigade of the Chilean Investigative Police.

Source: pdju.cl, June 1, 2016

Supreme Court upholds sentence convicting retired Carabineros for torture of political prisoners at the Segunda Comisaría de Temuco

The Second Chamber of the highest court ruled out any error of law in the sentence that convicted one officer and two non-commissioned officers for the application of torture against brothers Tomás Esparza Osorio (deceased) and Javier Esparza Osorio (survivor).

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal against the sentence that convicted three retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for their responsibility in the application of torture resulting in the death of Tomás Esparza Osorio and the application of torture against Javier Esparza Osorio, events that occurred in 1984 at the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco.

In the ruling (case file 7.671-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Hernán González, Roberto Contreras, and attorney Pía Tavolari—ruled out any error in the sentence that established that the crimes are imprescriptible.

Retired officer Alex Valle Philips and retired non-commissioned officer Moisés Reyes Rivas were sentenced to 4 years in prison as perpetrators of the application of torture resulting in the death of Tomás Esparza Osorio and to 3 years in prison as perpetrators of the application of torture against Javier Esparza Osorio.

Meanwhile, retired non-commissioned officer Rubén Muñoz Rivas must serve a sentence of 51 days in prison as an accomplice to the application of torture against Tomás Esparza Osorio. "That the reason that led the trial judges to determine that the investigated facts were subsumable under the regulation of crimes against humanity—and, consequently, that they were crimes not subject to the statute of limitations—is related to the establishment, as a fact of the case, of the political context in which they took place, the circumstances of defenselessness of the victims, and, likewise, the conditions generated by the State itself to contribute to the impunity and excesses that were deployed by the agents. Such conditions were established in the twenty-second motivation of the first-instance ruling, reproduced in its entirety in the challenged sentence," the ruling states. It adds: "That, based on the above, for the appellants to be able to succeed with the errors invoked, they should have also developed a cause that would allow for the modification of the factual substrate presented, in the sense of demonstrating that, in the establishment of the facts—which allowed for the normative application contained in International Human Rights Law—and synthesized in the previous motive, a violation of the rules governing evidence occurred, which did not happen in this instance." Furthermore, it is considered: "That, regarding what was expressed in Valle Phillips' appeal, regarding the non-consideration of a teratological report regarding the death of one of the victims, such reproach is not related to the proposed cause for invalidation, a claim that is better suited to the seventh cause of Article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, but not to that established in the second numeral, which obeys a qualification of the crime consistent with facts established by the judges." "That, finally, regarding the claim about an alleged erroneous application of the provisions contained in Law 20.357, the twenty-second motivation itself reasons on the impropriety of incorporating it into the resolution, explaining that based on its Article 44, the scope of application of such statute obeys only to facts that occurred after its promulgation and not to the facts investigated in these proceedings. It is worth remembering that, for the judgment of this type of crime, one must resort, among others, to International Human Rights Law, by application of the rule contained in Article 5, second paragraph of the Fundamental Charter, as this Court has repeatedly pointed out," the ruling concludes. The investigation by the human rights cases minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre established: "A.- That inside the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, during 1984, there was a small office located in an area near the interior courtyard, where a group of uniformed officers who made up the civil commission of said police unit performed their duties, composed of Lieutenant Alex Mauricio Valle Philips and corporals Moisés Reyes Rivas and Hernán Navarrete Reyes, who were dedicated to performing tasks different from the rest of the personnel of the Segunda Comisaría, especially crimes of social connotation. In the office designated for their work, they proceeded to interrogate detainees, who on some occasions were not entered into the guard and cell logs, but rather, prior to that official procedure, were taken directly to said office. Furthermore, for their work as members of the civil commission of the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, they frequently used a gray vehicle owned by Valle Philips. B.- That in the month of November 1984, Sergeant Rubén Eloy Muñoz Rivas, head of the Las Quilas station, notified the members of the civil commission of the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco regarding information about an illicit act being investigated, with said group and Muñoz Rivas himself going to the home of Tomás Segundo Esparza Osorio, proceeding to arrest him along with 17-year-old Juan Enrique Fuentes Santibáñez. Both young men were taken to the Las Quilas station by the arresting group, being entered directly into the cells by them, without recording their entry in the respective guard log. In that place—and with all members of the group that carried out the arrest, including Muñoz Rivas, present at the police facility—the civil commission proceeded to tie Esparza Osorio's hands, sit him on the floor, and then applied electric current to different parts of his body until they obtained a confession for the alleged illicit act committed the previous night. The foregoing was observed by Juan Enrique Fuentes Santibáñez, who at that moment was in an adjacent cell and could see what was happening through the door's peephole. C.- That after obtaining the confession of his participation in the alleged illicit act committed the previous night, Tomás Esparza Osorio was taken out of the police unit to be transported by the civil commission to the Segunda Comisaría de Carabineros de Temuco, while the 17-year-old youth was released without any charges against him. On the way to the police unit, in an area near the city's municipal stadium, the uniformed officers also proceeded to apprehend Esparza Osorio's brother, named Javier, on the public road, placing him in the trunk of the vehicle and finally transporting them to the aforementioned station. D.- That at the police unit, both were placed in a cell and, immediately thereafter, one of the members of the group proceeded to blindfold Javier Esparza Osorio, take him out of that place, and transport him to another office located in the same station. There, and in the presence of the other Carabineros of the civil group, he was subjected to torture consisting of the application of electric current to different parts of his body. Subsequently, he was taken back to the cell where he had originally been placed, and after this, he witnessed the moment when his brother Tomás was subjected to the same procedure, that is, being blindfolded and taken out of the cell. E.- That after a few minutes, Tomás Esparza Osorio was taken to a cell adjacent to the one where he had originally been placed, complaining loudly of pain resulting from the coercion received. After a few minutes, his brother Javier looked through the peephole of the cell door and was able to see how the uniformed officers were moving quickly, even seeing a person in a white coat arrive at that sector, and also hearing that a detainee had died." In the civil aspect, the sentence that established compensation for moral damages to the victims' siblings, Tomás Esparza Osorio's son, and Javier Esparza Osorio was confirmed.

Source: pjud.cl, November 17, 2021